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Sunday, July 29
Many upset about firing
Reuters

HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- Jordan went backwards at Sunday's German Grand Prix despite locals offering their own suggestions about where they should be headed.

"Jordan Go Home," declared one banner displayed at the Hockenheim circuit.

"Heinz Come Back," said another.

Germany was never going to be a particularly welcoming country for a Formula One team who departed from their friendly image earlier in the week by sacking German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

And, doubtless to the satisfaction of those new-found enemies, Jordan endured their worst weekend of the season with two non-finishes following up their weakest qualifying performance of the year.

Brazilian Ricardo Zonta had qualified 15th on the grid, two places below Frentzen's worst effort of the season.

The day started badly enough when both cars were left stranded in the morning warm-up, with Italian Jarno Trulli's engine blowing and Zonta skidding out into the gravel trap.

Trulli then suffered a hydraulic pump failure 10 laps from the finish after spinning while attempting to overtake British American Racing's Olivier Panis and dropping from ninth to 17th place on lap 12.

Zonta collided with Dutchman Jos Verstappen, ripping off his front wing in a race the Brazilian had hoped would allow him to impress the team sufficiently to get a drive as Frentzen's replacement beyond the weekend.

Eddie Jordan watched it all unravel from the pit wall. Carefree would not be a word used by many commentators.

"This weekend has been a nightmare and hopefully marks the end of a period of time we want to put behind us," said the Irish entrepreneur in a team statement.

Damaged car
"Ricardo had an unfortunate incident with Verstappen which took him out of the race as it damaged the car too badly to continue.

"Jarno was on a good one-stop strategy but unfortunately he spun trying to defend his position to Panis. We now need to put this race behind and build ourselves up for Hungary and beyond," said Jordan.

Formula One has a three-week break before the next Hungarian Grand Prix and Jordan go into it knowing that they have slipped further back down the table.

There will certainly not be any holiday mood at the team's Silverstone factory even if testing is banned for the duration.

The team's lack of points in Germany allowed Honda-powered rivals BAR to leapfrog them in the standings after Canadian Jacques Villeneuve finished third.

Fifth placed BAR now have 16 points to Jordan's 15 with the latter team scoring just once in the last seven races.

Villeneuve, who secured the team's first podium finish in Spain in April after leader Mika Hakkinen's McLaren broke down on the last lap, was surprised with a car he had criticised only days earlier.

"We weren't very competitive all weekend but this morning, surprisingly, in the warm-up after a few changes in the car, it was really competitive with fuel on board.

"It's not the same car we're driving now that we were on Friday. New suspension and everything.

"I think that this one (podium) had more work into it than Spain. In Spain we were not very quick and then Hakkinen broke down on the last lap so that was just pure luck."

Luck of any sort is something Jordan would welcome.

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